PHALAROPODID^ — THE PHALAROPES — STEGANOPUS. 337 



to have been found ou the Pacific coast. During the winter months it occurs in 

 Guatemala and in .Mexico, but to what extent we have no certain information. 



More recently it has been ascertained to be a common resident in the more south- 

 ern portions of South America. Mv. H. Durnford, in liis account of the birds observed 

 by him in the Chupat Valley of Patagonia, mentions this species as being quite com- 

 mon in tliat region, where he saw it swimming gracefully in the still pools formed 

 by the eddies of the river, and in nearly all the adjacent stagnant ditches. The birds 

 were usually seen in pairs. 



Captain Bendire regards tliis bird as being moderately common in Eastern Oregon 

 during the breeding-season, at which time it associates with the Willets, which it 

 resembles in its own actions when any one approaches its nesting-place. Mr. Nelson 

 mentions this species as a very common summer resident in the marshes of ]S"orthern 

 Illinois, arriving about the middle of May, and remaining until into August. It nests 

 from about the 25th of ]May until late in June. 



Mr. A. L. Kumlien, in "Field and Forest," July, 1876, supplies some interesting 

 notes relative to the very remarkable and eccentric ways of this bird. In its mode 

 of living it is quite different from most Waders ; and one very peculiar feature in 

 its habits is that the male attends to the duties of incubation almost entirely alone, 

 while his much more richly dressed mate idly gambols on the shore. Unlike most 

 birds, the female of this species makes the advances to the male during the pairing 

 season, and it is quite common to see two females pursuing one male. Mr. Kumlien 

 has invariably found the naked and Avrinkled belly, characteristic of the incubating 

 bird, present in the male, but never in the female. iSTeither does the female evince 

 the distress shown by the male when the nest is approached, the latter being quite 

 reckless of danger, while his mate will not come within gunshot. The nest is de- 

 scribed as being a flat, loosely-constructed affair, Imilt in a tussock of grass, seldom 

 in the immediate vicinity of open water, but usually in the adjoining grassy marshes. 

 In one instance a nest was found, four miles from the nearest sheet of water, in a 

 small slough on a high prairie. Mr. Kumlien speaks of this species as being remark- 

 ably quiet and still. The only note he had ever heard it utter was a weak nasal 

 quack repeated six or seven times in quick succession ; this is usually done by the 

 male at the time when the nest is approached. The young are conducted to the shore 

 soon after they are hatched, and when surprised will take to the water and swim and 

 dive with great ease. They are fully fledged by the last of July, congregating in con- 

 siderable flocks at that time. 



Professor T. Kumlien wrote me in 1860 that this species, which before that 

 period had been one of the rarest of birds — only two or three having been noticed 

 in as many or more years — had become quite plentiful, moving in large flocks. They 

 arrive May 4, and are at first very shy, but before leaving become as tame as the 

 Least Sandpiper. He often watched their movements from a distance of not more 

 than six or eight feet. From the facts that there was not one male to eight females, 

 that they moved in flocks, and that at the same time the females had eggs fvill-sized 

 in their ovaries, he was led to suspect that they were polygamous. He has since 

 written me that this species is now found more or less commonly each season near 

 Lake Koskonong. A few remain there to breed, but the greater portion pass through 

 to more northern regions in the latter part of May. The young begin to appear in 

 advance of their parents in August. In the summer of 1873 this species occurred 

 there in unusual numbers. The young birds became very aiumerous as early as the 

 middle of July, but gradually grew less abundant toward the 15th of August. Mr. 

 Kumlien was of opinion that only a very few of the young birds could have been 



VOL. I. — 43 



